In a recent stint on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Sen. Claire McCaskill released a public service to “encourage more women to run for office.” She also shared how it’s “equally important… encouraging more men to sometimes just shut the hell up.”
The full list of “things women no longer need to hear men’s opinions on” included:
- Star Wars
- Pant suits
- Selfies
- Shonda Rhymes
- Curtains
- Carbs
- Millennials
- Body hair removal
- Religion
- Gluten
- Harry Potter
- Nut Allergies
- Star Wars again
- All art in general
- Whether or not to brine the Thanksgiving turkey
- Ethics in gaming journalism
Some on the list are silly and random, such as selfies. But others are not just random, but non-sensical and wrong. Why shouldn’t a man opine on curtains if they’ll be going in a house he also lives in? And why do topics like religion and Harry Potter have to be defined by gender?
The PSA was meant to be taken as a joke, as McCaskill later tweeted. It certainly wasn’t a very funny one — pretty annoying, actually.
As if McCaskill’s PSA wasn’t nauseating enough, HuffPoLive did a segment on the backlash received soon after. And, they were all for standing by McCaskill, with host Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani referring to the senator as “resident badass” and the PSA as being “very important.”
Modarressy-Tehrani also interjected to tell off “dudes” that “from reproductive rights to the latest Star Wars trailer, Sen. Claire McCaskill, and the rest of us, really don’t need your mansplaining.”
Mansplaining, seriously? Seriously. A large portion of the segment actually focused on this oh so oppressive “mansplaining,” as writer and activist Wagatwe Wanjuki was asked why what McCaskill was saying “fell on deaf ears.”
Predictably, Wanjuki blamed white men. She sort of laughed as she offered that “probably because the target demographic are people who don’t listen to women.” It could be because nobody, regardless of sex or race, doesn’t enjoy being told to “shut the hell up,” but that argument was what truly fell on deaf ears.
Wanjuki also shared how “these responses… still don’t get it” and referred to them as “so pervasive.” She also complained about the “mansplaining” she had been subject to on Facebook, and offered that it’s because men just aren’t smart enough:
Guest Allison Rapson was a little less angry as she admitted that “I also think it’s not that the male perspective is inherently wrong” but that “it’s that it’s what we get so much of.” Additionally she shared “we also need more space for the female opinion, and for that opinion to be respected.”
Sure, but all opinions need to be respected — even the ones of white men. We don’t respect one’s opinion at the cost of having “men maybe needing to take a back seat every once in a while,” as Rapson suggested.
Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani then proceeded to complain of how “that space was shut down” for McCaskill. Guest Kassidy Brown weighed in on McCaskill’s very first mention, about how she was only one of 20 women in the Senate, which to Brown, is “our first problem.” According to Brown’s logic, “when we have a government that reflects us, more female opinions will be shared.”
But this female opinion is sharing that HuffPo Live and Sen. Claire McCaskill are part of the problem. They’re why so few people think of the term feminism in a positive way or are willing to identify with it.
What they’re advocating for doesn’t make you a “badass.” It actually makes you a pain in the ass. And it’s not what feminism ought to be. Standing up for equal rights for women shouldn’t involve being a pain in someone’s ass when they might otherwise be sympathetic to your cause. True feminism came about because women were the ones being told to “shut the hell up.” And now we’re just telling men to do that. How is doing the oppressing going to do anything to help the oppressed?
This female opinion is also writing to say that such women don’t represent me. I welcome all opinions of all people, which includes, I’m sorry I’m not sorry to say, that of a white man.
